no title

Web-only letters to the editor, Oct. 22, 2013

Letters Policy

The Dispatch welcomes letters to the editor from readers. Typed letters of 200 words or
fewer are preferred; all might be edited. Each letter must include name, home address and daytime
phone number.
Dispatch.com also posts letters that don't make it to print in
The Dispatch.

FAX

Also in Opinion

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

Tuesday October 22, 2013 8:39 AM

Dispatch.com regularly will post letters to the editor that don't make it to print in The
Dispatch. Unlike letters to the editor that appear in the newspaper, Web-only letters have not been
edited.

Blame for Cruz

I am responding to "Cruz blocks Senate from voting on FCC nomination" in Friday's Dispatch
Editorial Section. This doesn't surprise me; you could write one article that declares Ted
Cruz is against everything that has anything to do with Barack Obama, and that would leave you with
more space to write about something more newsworthy. I don't know why some of his
Congressional buddies from the Tea Party don't take him aside and tell him what a fool he is
portraying himself as.

First, he clearly has no empathy for the poor, elderly, or immigrants and won't support
anything (health-care, food stamps), or anything else that would make their lives better. He must
only be representing a gerrymannered slice of Tea Party voters. Second, he has no trouble
costing the U.S. economy $24 billion during the government shutdown. He must have a very powerful
personality for all the Tea Party members to follow him like sheep. He just seems to want to
get in the way of anything that makes it more difficult to help the needy and elderly by shutting
the government down, and, if he had his way, would cut Medicare and Social Security. He's
absolutely against Medicaid expansion. His actions hurt both Democrats and Republicans. And he
wouldn't care if America could not pay it's debts and go over the financial cliff.

He is representing only a thin slice of American citizens: members of the Tea Party. If
a U.S. citizen steals $1,000 from another U.S. citizen, he will prabably go to jail if he is
caught. But what if you use your seat in the Congressional House, along with a few of your buddies,
to cost the American economy $24 billion: Since he knew what he was doing, I see a fine line
between a thief and Ted Cruz. Where is American justice?

Bernard Martin, Columbus

Trust government?

Imagine that you appointed a stranger to make all your household purchases for you.
That person would make all the decisions where to buy everything you need to live your life and
from whom to buy it. They would not only draw the money from your checking account but decide
how much debt to accumulate on your credit cards.

That person might choose to buy your groceries wherever they could get the most rewards for
themselves or might hire their friend to fix your car or paint your house, etc. to get a favor in
return, regardless of the cost to you, and why not? Conflicts of interest are human nature.

That is the way our government works, from the president down to your local school board
member. We are appointing folks, of whom our choices are narrowed by political parties, to
spend our earnings and our children’s future earnings for us. But how do we know we can trust
them? I argue that we cannot because the fact that we give them our spending/borrowing power
corrupts even the best of them.

Politicians use your money and credit to pay back favors to those who gave money to help
elect them, enrich themselves while in office, then hire themselves out as lobbyists to use their
influence to rob you even after they are out of office. This goes on in both parties and
always has.

In 2010 the president and his party, without the consent of the majority of Americans,
narrowly passed the bill known as Obamacare with the narrowest margin possible. Later that
year the American people made their considerable displeasure known by routing the Democrats from
office nationwide and handing congressional districting power to the other party for the next ten
years. This change was driven mainly by a grassroots movement referred to as the tea party.

Tea party candidates were sent to Washington, among other places, in 2010 by American voters
to stop this bipartisan robbery of the American people. These folks believe in lower taxes,
less regulation, no deficit spending and protection of civil liberties.

So who can you trust to represent you in Washington, Columbus or your local school
board? The tea party folks are being bashed harshly in the media and by politicians and their
patrons who have great interest in keeping the spoils to themselves as it always has been.
For those folks the stakes are high.
It seems objective media reporting on politics is very rare these days. I encourage you
to examine this for yourselves and make your own decisions on who has your best interests at
heart. Maybe those officeholders who advocate taking less from you, ending deficit spending
and keeping government out of your business deserve some consideration.

She says 86% of women have been unprepared for their period. Women often carry purses. Why
not be prepared? For those who aren’t, Ms Kramer could work to make tampons available to purchase
in every restroom, instead of expecting others to pay for them

Ms Kramer states, “It’s humiliating to be in a situation and not have what you need.” WHAT?
Who’s had what they need at all times? There are people who are hungry, people who can’t afford
medical care and people who are homeless. Their needs are more important than an occasional tampon

Ms Kramer’s daughter attends a private school in Upper Arlington. Lower income parents of
children in public schools wouldn’t find this issue a priority

Rick Kritzer, Columbus

Deal with debt

I would like to comment on the mud fight between Democrat partisans, like Joe Hallet and TEA
Party advocates, but without any name calling. Change is difficult for everyone, especially
Progressives since they've had their way for such a long time. Progressive Woodrow Wilson was
re-elected almost a century ago with the slogan "He kept us out of War." Almost immediately after
the election he borrowed 30 billion dollars and entered World War I. The government paid it back
with another loan, then another, and so on. The fact is the debt has never been paid back, only the
interest on the debt which by now is twice as much as Wilson borrowed in the first place. The
government loaned money to other countries during World War II. Most of that was never paid back.
Nobody even talks about it anymore. Originally Republicans were outraged at spending and debt until
the Military Industrial complex became their constituency. Now no establishment politician cares
enough about the debt to do anything about it. Only TEA party Republicans do. Meanwhile the debt
has risen to 17 trillion dollars. If you borrowed a million dollars a day going back to the day
Christ was born, the total wouldn't even come close to just ONE trillion dollars. No one will loan
us money, so the Federal Reserve just prints more like dictators in a South American banana
republic do. Gerrymandering guarantees which party wins in a district and prevents candidates from
any new party like Libertarians from ever getting elected. So the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party
is taking over the Republican Party because they have no alternative except armed conflict.

Steve Lisak, Clintonville

Gridlock? Good

The president of the Ohio AFL-CIO responded to a Dispatch article entitled "Safe seats
guarantee gridlock" Mr Burga's feels that with more democrats elected, we would eliminate gridlock.
Lets really examine what Mr. Burga and the unions are trying to sell. The more democrats
elected both in congress and the Ohio legislature means more support for his union coffers. The
AFL-CIO is not interested in political fairness only in union fairness. If the AFL-CIO was
interested in balance, they would push for Columbus city council WARD elections and allow for best
price contracts for government jobs. Lets all remember what happened when there was no gridlock in
the U.S. congress the first two years of Obamas term, Obamacare. The AFL-CIO loves it when no
gridlock favors them and their agenda.

Dick Alexander, Pickerington

Upper Arlington levy

Although I am too young to vote, I write today asking for support from the voters of Upper
Arlington to cast their ballot in favor of Issue 52 this November. A message was sent last
year when the previous levy failed. Since then, the district has made many cuts. Some would argue
that those cuts were necessary. However, now is the time to invest in the level of excellence
that our school district has been known for years. This level of excellence is not just known
throughout central Ohio but throughout the state of Ohio as well. Good schools and education
systems attract residence that in turn keep property values higher. If the levy passed Upper
Arlington residence would still have a lower school property tax rate than many other
districts. Currently, UA residents pay $1,464 per $100,000 in school property tax compared to
Bexley residents who pay $1,977. If the levy were to fail, 68.5 additional teaching positions over
the next two years would be cut. Other districts that we consider our peer group, including New
Albany, Bexley, and Dublin, pay more in taxes per student. Logically people make investments
in things that are of value. The quality of the education of our youth is worth that investment.

Mary Bridget Ginn, Upper Arlington

Blame the GOP

I think the thing that strikes me the most about the continued Republican obstruction to
Obama care and Medicaid is the immoral position they take in that they have health insurance
for themselves and their families but they want to deny to it others. Its difficult to understand
how the people who consider themselves to be the most religion segment of our society can attach
themselves to such a selfish position and how they can think that God and Jesus would be on their
side on this issue. Its the same logic used by religious slave owners to justify slavery prior to
the Civil War. I have to ask what do they pray for when they are at church for their Sunday
services?

John Georgiton, Columbus

Tea Party

Two letter writers argued that the Tea Party is not a radical group (Oct. 18, 2013).

Judge them by what they do. On Wednesday Oct. 16, 2013 they blocked a last chance
effort by the Republican speaker of the House to pass a Republican solution to the government
shutdown. They rejected the proposed bill because it "did nothing to oppose Obamacare".

Representatives elected as Republicans who refuse to support a last-minute bid by the
Republican leadership of the House to end the impasse fit my definition of a radical group.